Panelists will discuss questions about the strategic importance of Tibet to the United States and China.

As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heads to China this week for yearly strategic consultations, a daring bid for political asylum has highlighted the seething dissent beneath China’s surface stability.

Will Xi reassure the White House that he is a leader it can work with both now and in the future? Can he simultaneously reassure his Chinese compatriots that he will not kowtow to the United States? How important is Xi's visit in the bigger picture of U.S.-China relations? On Thursday, February 16, a panel will assess Xi's time in Washington.

A new railway, connecting Beijing to Lhasa, is opening Tibet to commerce and tourism.

We must engage with China when it is in our interests to do so. But our most urgent task is to successfully play balance of power politics in Asia until a new regime emerges in China that is more accepting of the international order and less afraid of its own people.

The uprising in Tibet may become a serious problem for China in the future.

The explanation for China's international rudeness is a threefold recipe for mischief: greater military power combined with leadership weakness and a xenophobic nationalism that China's leadership created.